


Tides Turn

by illegalgreek



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff, because im a loser to fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 02:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4287972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illegalgreek/pseuds/illegalgreek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Busy days in flower shops were rare but not necessarily uncommon for Percy, but meeting a beautiful woman who happens to work in the tattoo shop by the flower shop is definitely uncommon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tides Turn

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first upload onto Ao3 and I wanted it to be of my first otp, Percabeth.

It was a drizzly February morning the day that Percy woke up extra early, knowing what chaos would erupt in the store below his house.

His eyes snapped open at the sound of the shrill alarm by his bed, his brain going into full overdrive. He lifted his hand and smacked the clock to shut it up as he groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes lazily.

 

Percy's eyes drifted to read the time on the clock 5:30 he grumbled moodily, standing up and walking to the bathroom to wash up.

He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and made his best attempt to comb his hair, which was unsuccessful as always. Percy heaved a tired sigh and changed into a simple outfit, grabbing his work apron on the way out his room.

 

He walked into the kitchen and made himself some toast and throwing on his dark green work apron, he then quickly scribbled down a note for his mother that read, "I'll take care of the shop, rest up."

And with that he gathered his wallet, keys, and phone then stuffed the toast in his mouth, walking out the house and locking the door behind him.

 

Percy hurried down the steps and unlocked the backdoor of the shop his mother owned, he made his way through the back section and emerged at the register.

He then looked at the calender by the counter and drew and 'X' over the date that marked yesterday, his eyes landing on the circle around the number fourteen on the calendar.

 

February fourteenth, Valentines Day.

 

Percy remembered how excited he was for Valentines Day when he was younger, bouncing on the heels of his feet waiting for the teacher to hand out candy to everyone.

But now Valentines Day was just another annoyingly busy day for him in the shop, he walked out from behind the counter and made his way to the front of the shop, weaving his way through the many bouquets of flowers.

 

He nonchalantly pulled out his keys again and unlocked the door, flipping the sign on it from 'Closed' to 'Open'.

Percy pushed open the door and placed a door stopper underneath the door then going back in and bringing out a stool, placing it out the shop and putting a basket of delicately placed roses on the stool.

 

He's done this routine every morning for the past eight years so he's gotten rather familiar with the smell of flowers and the placement of where they should be. And as he placed a sign promoting a 10% discount on bouquets he was completely oblivious to the curious pair of eyes watching him.

Percy then stood up straight and stretched, letting out a grunt then running his right hand through his hair.

He turned around and his actions froze as his eyes were met by a pair of stormy grey eyes, he blinked and saw that the owner of those beautiful eyes was just as beautiful herself.

 

Percy let his eyes roam her body, a leather jacket, shirt and black jeans were all she wore on the exterior, her creamy blonde hair making waves of oceans around her head.

He watched as droplets of rain dropped into her elegant blonde hair.

She offered him a smile and Percy felt his face flush, he hastily looked down at his wrist to read the time, 5:53.

Percy looked back up expecting to see her eyes again, but the lady was looking up at the grey skies. As he looked at her, even for an instant, he found her too captivating to tear his eyes from.

Like a perfect bouquet of flowers, she seemed like a thousand red luscious roses.

 

Even though Percy was perfectly content with looking at her the rest of the day, he reluctantly looked away and went back in the store then came back out after remembering he had nothing else to do but wait.

 

He stood awkwardly by the entrance of the flower shop, feeling a heat rise up to his ears as he tries his best to not look at the charming lady. In the end he lost that futile battle, and let his eyes flit to the lady. She was still looking at the drizzling sky her expression indifferent to the light raindrops bursting on her cheeks.

 

Percy once again seemed mesmerized by her and all his courage to spark a conversation died as he watched her.

Though after a while, he mustered back his courage and opened his mouth to speak, "How long have you been there?"

 

It came out like a squeak of a mouse clearly unheard by her, Percy cursed himself mentally and cleared his throat then trying again, "How long have you been there?"

 

The lady looked back at Percy, her eyebrows raised skyward, "Hmm? Me?"Percy nodded, "Yeah, you."She tilted her head and pursed her lips, thinking hard about it, "Approximately an hour and thirty or more minutes."

Percy was taken aback for a moment, "Wait, you were- You were out here as I opened shop?"

She nodded slightly a ghost of a smile on her face, Percy scratched his head and furrowed his eyebrows, "I don't remember seeing anyone..."

 

"Well it did seem as if those flowers were all you could see."

 

Percy looked at her to see a smirk playing on her lips, he felt his cheeks heating up as he fixed his gaze on the floor and muttered a few things about the uniqueness of roses.

 

Percy looked up again and rose his eyebrows in curiosity, "Do you work around here or something? I haven't seen you around here before."

The lady nodded as her index finger popped up, pointing at the sign of the store behind her.

 

Jim's Tattoo Shop.

 

"I'm a new employee there." She said with a smile, Percy felt his eyes widen, "There? You work there?"

She nodded again, this time a little impatiently, "Yeah, what's wrong with 'There'?" Percy shook his head promptly, "No-nothing is wrong with that place, it's just..."

"You didn't expect me to work in a tattoo shop?"

Percy looked away in embarrassment as he nodded his head, "Yeah, that."

The lady let out a small chuckle and walked up to him, holding out her hand, "Well I do, so we'll be neighbors now in a sense. Nice to meet you, Flower Boy."

 

Percy blinked at her then looked at the watch on his wrist, it read 6:04, he wiped the gathering sweat off of his hand on his apron then grabbed her hand firmly, shaking it in greeting.

"Nice to meet you too, Tattoo Girl."They stayed like that for a few seconds before they both broke out in grins and broke out into laughter.

\--

By the time the Tattoo Girl's boss arrived and opened up shop it had already been well past 7:00, and during the hour of freedom Percy and the Tattoo Girl spoke about nothing yet everything at the same time.

 

They spoke about the horrible weather for a Valentine's day, the sweet smell of rainwater, the many possible scenarios of tragedies that could awake today due to rain.

She even showed Percy the several tattoo's on her upper arm and he in exchange told her some fun facts about the different flowers, which she mostly knew to his surprise.

 

When her boss, a bulky dude with a shaved head and a hipster beard by Percy's standard, arrived she waved goodbye to Percy and smiled at him before walking into the shop.

That was when everything got incredibly boring, Percy was back in his shop leaning over the counter while tapping his feet as he waited for a customer.

 

When the first customer came in Percy braced himself for a long and draining day of agonizing work.

\--

Hours and hours pass, and the later it gets the more panicked the customers seem. Most of the muttering on how they "screwed up" or "totally forgot", Percy meets goons like them all the time in this store, the ones that come into the store trying to buy the best bouquet because they had a fight with their wife or girlfriend.

And sometimes Percy can't help but pity them at least a little.

 

Occasionally, when there aren't any customers for awhile, Percy would walk outside the store and let his eyes hopefully watched the tattoo shop next to his flower shop, waiting for a specific blonde-haired beauty to come out and start talking about random things as they did earlier.

 

But it seemed the tides didn't want to turn for Percy today because he didn't get any chance to see her, well that was until around 3:25 pm.

There weren't any customers for the past thirty minutes so Percy planned on walking out to see if the Tattoo Girl was there, but just as he was about to walk from behind the counter the same lady he wanted to see walked right in.

 

The head of golden hair, the sharp silver eyes, and the smug yet warm smile. She wasn't wearing her leather jacket from earlier and there she stood with a loose plain white shirt, her colorful tattoo peaking out from under the arm of her shirt.

 

The flowers surrounding her seemed to make her shine like the sun, making Percy's heart do weird flips in his chest.

Percy drank it all in, from the little movements in her ever so active fingers to her splendid mischievous eyes. She stood in front him from across the counter and she placed her hands on the counter, watching him curiously.

 

He felt flustered by her sturdy gaze yet he stared back at her, trying his best to keep himself from blushing like a fool. The tip of her lips tilted up into a smirk, "You know, Flower Boy, I never got your name."

 

Percy blinked and scratched the back of his neck, "Oh, really? I didn't notice." She smiled and pointed at herself, "Well, my name is Annabeth, Annabeth Chase."

Percy's lips parted and he tried her name in a low voice, "Annabeth Chase... It's a nice name." He smiled at her and she smiled back and her finger pointed at him, "What about you?"

 

He pointed at himself also and looked her straight in the eyes, "The name's Percy, Percy Jackson."

Annabeth's lips leaned upwards, "Well Percy Jackson, I'm inviting you for coffee tomorrow at 8 o'clock." And with that, even before Percy could react, she walked out with a smirk, "See ya, Flower Boy"

 

Percy stared at the door Annabeth just walked out of, his face felt as though it were burning. He slapped both his hands on his cheeks as a huge giddy grin surfaced on his face.

Maybe the tides were turning well for Percy after all.


End file.
